Palaeo-botany. — "Eiapteris Bertrandi Scott, a vfiv Ëtapterit 

 from the Upper Carboniferous {Loioer Coal- Measures) from 

 England, and its bearing to stelar-morphological questions." 

 By 0. Posthumus. (Communicated by Prof. J. W. Moi.i,.) 



(Comrnunicated at the meeting of October 27, 1923). 



Remains of this plant have been found in a coal-ball from Shore, 

 Lancashire; only the petiole is known, of which a series of ti'ans- 

 verse sections has been cut b^' J. Lomax. Of this series 3 sections 

 are present in the Palaeo-botanical collection of the Miiieralogical- 

 Geological Institute of the Groninoen University (N°. 140 — 142); 

 besides I have seen 6 other sections in the collection of Dr. Scott 

 in the British Museum (Natural History) in London (N°. 2835—2840). 

 The species has been mentioned by Dr. Scott in his catalogue of 

 the collection as Etapteris Bertraiuli, and is distinguished, as he 

 remarks, from the other species of the genus by the well developed 

 sinus in the xylem of the vascular bundle of the petiole. 



The sections in the Groningen collection, though less in number, 

 show some features which are not present in the British Museum 

 specimens, and enable us to form an opinion of the relation of the 

 species to its nearest allies. 



The following description is chiefly derived from the sections 

 present in the Groningen collection. 



The order of the sections is 140 — 141 — 142; I cannot give with 

 certainty the exact place in the series of the British Museum sections, 

 but of the series the end is in Groningen. They are all transveise 

 sections of the petiole, which is about 2'/, mm. thick.') 



The epidermis is wanting; it could not be made out whether 

 assimilating tissue with intercellular spaces had existed under the 

 epidermis, but it is unlikely from analogy with allied species. Under 

 these missing layers we find sclerotic tissue: thick-walled cells with 

 a narrow lumen without intercellular spaces. In its innermost part 

 the thickness of the cell-walls decreases and the lumen is wider. 

 The inner cortex consists of thin-walled parenchymatous tissue 

 without intercellular spaces; it is only preserved at the extremities 



') The other dimensions are shown iu the microphotographs which are enlarged 

 45 times. 



